The Glory Field - Hardcover

Myers, Walter Dean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590458973 ISBN 13: 9780590458979

Publisher: Scholastic, 1994

Synopsis

An in-depth look at five generations of an African-American family traces the Lewises from Africa to slavery in the southern United States. By the Newbery and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of Somewhere in the Darkness.

About this title

About the Author:

Walter Dean Myers is the 2012 - 2013 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author an award-winning body of work which includes, SOMEWHERE IN THE DARKNESS, SLAM!, and MONSTER. Mr. Myers has received two Newbery Honor medals, five Coretta Scott King Author Awards, and three National Book Award Finalists citations. In addition, he is the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up-This moving, effective novel is a sort of Roots for young adults. It chronicles the African American experience through the lives and times of one family, beginning in 1753 with the capture of Muhammed Bilal in Sierra Leone. He survives his journey to America on a slave ship to become the founder of a family, whose history The Glory Field is all about. Readers then meet one of his descendants, Lizzy, a young slave who works on a plantation in 1864 on Curry Island, South Carolina. From slavery, escape, and the Civil War, they follow the fortunes of the family to the year 1900. Then, teenaged Elijah migrates North. Chicago of the 1930s is described through the experiences of Luvenia, 16; Curry of 1964 is seen through the eyes of Tommy, also 16. The last part of the story is set in the present and focuses on Malcolm and Shep, teenaged cousins who have come to Curry from New York City for a family reunion. The decades pass swiftly and are connected by characters who appear in one segment of the saga and reappear later as survivors from the past or as memories. Each part of the story ends on a hopeful note, yet each is unfinished. Readers are left to wonder what happened to various people; sometimes an answer is provided, but more often not. The vast array of characters play out their lives challenged and beset by problems of racism, poverty, and identity. The anchors in their lives are family and their love for one another and their land. A beautifully written, powerful book.
Carol Jones Collins, Montclair Kimberley Academy, NJ
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0590458973
• ISBN 13: 9780590458979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 375